Conventional systems for automatically packaging articles produced on a manufacturing line are well known. Individual articles received from the manufacturing line have been counted and arranged into one or more stacks by employing conventional devices. Additionally, conventional devices have been employed to insert the stacks into pre-selected packages, such as cartons or bags.
During the conventional stacking and packaging operations, however, individual articles have often become dislodged or otherwise diverted from the ordinary manufacturing and packaging operations. While the resulting loose articles have been commercially acceptable, it has been difficult to reintroduce the articles into the ongoing manufacturing processes. Typically, the individual loose articles have been gathered, rearranged and stacked by hand. The resulting stacks have then been manually introduced back into the packaging operation.
The manual sorting and stacking operations, however, have been excessively inefficient and costly. As a result, there has been a continuing need for an automated system that can more efficiently rearrange, sort and reorient the individual loose articles. There has also been a continuing need for an automated system that can more efficiently stack or otherwise arrange the articles, and insert the resulting article stacks or other arrangements into desired packages.